Rain cape



Nov. 18, 1958 G. HARDEE RAIN CAPE Filed April 11, 1956 INVENTOR Geozae L l/qwsz ATTORNEYS United States Patent() RAIN CAPE George L. Hardee, West Columbia, S. C.

Application April 11, 1956, Serial No. 577,576

I 1 Claim. c1. 2- -s7 This invention relates to a garment which is particularly designed to be worn as a cape to protect the wearer of the same from rain.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a rain cape free of any zippers or openings which are conventionally provided on capes to permit the arms of the wearer to be extended therethrough and which openings and zippers detract from or negate some of the waterproofing features of the cape.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cape formed from a water repellent or waterproof material wherein the cape is simple in construction by having a single rear panel having its opposite sides secured to side portions of a pair of identical front panels and a collar secured to the upper portion of the rear and front panels to define the neck portion of the cape.

A further object of the invention is to provide means on opposed ends of the collar for securing portions of the collar together in overlapping relation and wherein said means also serves to maintain said pair of front panels in overlapping relation to each other to protect the front portions of the wearer of the cape from the rain.

It is also a further object of the invention to provide a plurality of cut-out portions in the shoulder defining area of the rear panel to permit the panels to be secured together in a smooth manner without causing bulges or uneven portions in the shoulder area of the cape.

Some of the objects of the invention having been stated, other objects will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the cape;

Figure 2 is a top plan view of the collar portion before the same is folded on itself to be attached to the body portion of the cape;

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the right front panel of the cape shown in Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the rear panel of the cape;

Figure 5 is a front elevation of the left front panel of the cape shown in Figure 1;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view of the upper portion of the cape showing the manner in which the collar and front panels overlap when the garment is worn and showing the shoulder areas of the cape turned upwardly to show the manner in which the panels are secured together;

Figure 7 is a vertical section taken along the line 7--7 V in Figure 1 and showing the manner in which the collar portion is attached to the body portion of the cape.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, it will be seen that the embodiment of the invention which has been illustrated comprises four main portions adapted to be secured together to form the cape. Reference numeral 10 indicates the rear panel of the cape, 11 indicates the left front panel, 12 indicates the right front panel, and 13 indicates the collar portion or panel prior to the same being folded upon itself to be attached to the body portion of the cape formed by the panels. The rear panel 10 is the same length as the front panels 11, 12 to provide a uniform length to the cape when viewed from any angle.

The rear panel 10 is substantially rectangularly shaped and is provided with parallel straight side edge portions 14, 15 which join inwardly and sloping upper edge portions 16, 17, respectively. An inwardly curved upper edge portion 18 joins the uppermost points of the upwardly sloping edge portions 16, 17.

The upwardly sloping edge portions 16 and 17 of the rear panel 10 are provided with cut-out portions 16a and 17a respectively at substantially the shoulder portion of the panel to aid in securing the panel to the front panels in a smooth manner without causing the material in the shoulder portion to bulge or be lumpy. In the absence of the cut-out portions 16a, 1711, the excess material would fold on itself on the inner side of the cape to present an uneven appearance to the outer surface of the cape in the shoulder area.

Each of the front panels 11, 12 are identical and can best be described as being substantially oblong shaped. The left front panel 11 is provided with an upwardly curving side edge portion 20 which joins an inwardly curved upper edge portion 21. The front edge 22 of the panel 11 is substantially straight and vertically disposed and the uppermost point thereof defines one end of an inwardly curved neck defining edge portion 23 which has its other end being defined by the uppermost point of the inwardly sloping edge portion 21.

The front panel 12 is identical with the front panel 11 and therefore no specific description of the same is deemed necessary except to say that reference numerals 24, 25, 27 and 26 correspond with and identify the same elements as numerals 20, 21, 23 and 22, respectively, on panel 11.

Reference numerals 31 and 34 in the front panels 11 and 12, respectively, and reference numerals 32 and 35 in the rear panel 10 indicate the sew marks along which the panels are secured to each other by lines of stitching 30 and 33 as shown mostly clearly in Figure 6 wherein the shoulder portions of the garment are turned back to expose the inner surface of the garment to clearly show this feature.

After the respective panels 10, 11 and 12 are secured to each other by the lines of stitching 30, 33, the collar panel 13 in Figure 2 is folded upon itself to form an inner layer 40 (Figure 7) which normally engages the neck of the wearer and an outer layer 41 extending downwardly beyond the inner layer 40 to cover and hide the stitching securing the inner layer to the panels 10, 11 and 12 forming the body portion of the garment. A line of stitching 42 secures the outer layer 41 to the body portion of the garment. As will be observed in Figure 1, the opposed ends of the collar 13 terminate substantially flush with the proximal sides of the front panels '11, 12.

The collar 13 is provided with a button 43 adjacent one end thereof to be secured to the opposite end of the collar by being received in a buttonhole 44. When the button 43 is positioned in the button hole 44 as shown in Figure 6, portions of the front panel 11 overlap portions of the front panel 12 to protect the front portions of the wearer from the rain.

To complete the assembly of the garment, the lower edges of each of the panels 10, 11 and 12 are folded upwardly a small amount whereafter stitching 36 secures the folded portion to present a rounded or smooth edge to the bottom portion of the garment. Thereafter, edge portions 22 and 26 are folded inwardly and secured by stitching 37 and 38, respectively, to present smooth front edges to the garment.

It will therefore be apparent that applicant has provided a simplified rain cape construction wherein the same merely involves securing three panel sections together to form the body portion after which a collar is secured to the upper portion of the assembled panels .with the collar being providedwith a buttonand buttonhole to secure the rain cape to 'the wearer and'to cause 'the front portions of the cape to, overlap and protect the front portions of'the wearer of the samefrom the rain.

In the "drawings and specification there, has been set fortha preferred embodiment of the invention and, although'specific terms are'employed;theyare used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for -purposes of limitationythe scope of the invention being defined in the claim.

I claim:

A rain capecornprising ,a substantially rectangularly "shaped rear panel, a pair 'offront panels of the same length, as the rear panel and" having side edges of the same lentgh as each other and being secured to opposite ,side edges of said rear panel, each of said panels being formed from an uninterrupted flexible water repellent material, each of said front panels having upwardly and inwardly sloping outer side edges and .upper end edges,

outer side edges of the rear panel. being substantially parallel, the upper end edges of the rear panel sloping upwardly and inwardly toward the center, a collar secured to the upper portion of each of said panels and having its opposite ends terminating substantially flush with the proximal edges of said pair of front panels, said collar being formed of an elongated single sheet of water repellent material being folded upon itself to form an outer and inner layer, said outer layer being longer than the inner layer and being secured to the outer surfaces of said panels, said inner-layer being secured to the inner surfaces of said, panel and means spaced inwardly from the ends of said collar for securing the opposite ends of the collar in-overlappingrelation to causepolitions of one of the front panels. to overlap 'portions of the other front panel to protect the front portion of the wearer of the cape from the rain.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES 'PATENTS 2,148,344 Freedman Feb. 21, 1939 2,319,983 E rman May 25, 1943 FOREIGN-PATENTS 781,033 France ,I eb. 18, 1935 

